Wednesday, October 28, 2015

It started with Jenna, a
caller to The Sound’s (100.3 FM) Mark in the Morning who described her
suspicions regarding her boyfriend’s potential cheating. So while Jenna listened
in the background, show host Mark Thompson called her boyfriend Kevin,
pretending to be awarding flowers that could be delivered to anyone he wishes.
When Kevin sent them not to Jenna but instead to Jenna’s sister Tanya with a
love note, Jenna went ballistic.

Thompson then added Tanya
to the call, who fought on the air with Jenna and Kevin and announced she was
pregnant. When Thompson added Tanya’s boyfriend David into the mix, all heck
broke loose. It was as if we were listening to an audio version of those bad
television “talk” shows like Jerry Springer. You know, the shows in which the
people fighting on the set are actually actors paid to fight.

Turns out, we were. The
entire segment on Thompson’s program was fake, portrayed 100 percent by actors.
Deep down you couldn’t have not suspected such, as the scenario became more and
more absurd.

But did you know that all
such scenarios presented on radio are fake?

“One of the reasons we did
this,” explained Thompson on the air, “is to answer a question we receive
frequently.” That question: “why don’t you do those things where they give the
roses and they bust people?

“One of the most understood
rules in radio is that when I call you on the radio, I have to get your
permission to go on the air with me. I can’t even air you saying the word
‘hello’ without your permission. I can’t record you without your permission.”
Thompson said. “We would lose our license and be fined into the multi millions
of dollars. The lawsuits would be through the roof. If you heard these, they are
completely fake.”

So where do these segments
come from? Actors, of course. There are companies that supply comedy (and other)
bits to radio stations, including these scenarios. The company supplies a
script, and the hosts either talk directly to them over the phone or worse, just
splice in their voices to an already prepared script.

To what stations? Many. Not
just local, but nationwide. And the companies that provide the service are major
programming suppliers, some owned by conglomerate radio station owners. You
might hear the same voices, perhaps doing the same bit, on stations across the
country, not just here in Los Angeles.

Because I was not able at
press time to get comments from the stations and programs that run the alleged
fake bits, I will refrain from printing them here. But Sound programmer Dave
Beasing confirmed what was stated on the Thompson program: it is illegal under
both California law and FCC rules to air or record someone without obtaining
consent prior to the start of a recording, and thus “they are all fake.”

All of them. On every
station that airs them.

A search under the subject
revealed an article from 2011 (http://tinyurl.com/morningprank)
entitled “Your Favorite Wacky Morning Radio Show Is a Festival of Lies,” which
describes the exact same situation, including testimonies from actors who work
for Premiere Radio Networks and United Stations ... the actors who play the
parts of the “callers” and those called. And it’s not just morning shows ... it
seems some actors are used as planted callers on traditional talk shows as well,
though I assume it happens less in major cities than smaller towns. Is anything
real any more?

What About Dees

One of Rick Dees’ better
bits when he hosted the morning show on KIIS-FM (102.7) was “Candid Phone,” in
which he called people and described, for example, that a man’s Porsche was
almost done being painted -- by brushes, or that a woman’s son was “a homo
sapien.” “He was just on a date with a girl last night” the mother exclaimed!
This is essentially the same as heard on local stations today - were these fake
too?

Absolutely not, says one of
the former associates to the show who I am leaving anonymous to protect him ...
just in case. “I was not present at ALL the tapings, but all the ones that I
observed or participated in were all real calls to real people. Of course, they
WERE heavily edited, but, to my knowledge, not fake. We often didn't notify
callers in advance that we were recording them, but once it was revealed, the
participant always gave their consent to the recording AND to airing those
recordings.”

“Remember, this was when
Rick was at his zenith, EVERYONE wanted to be roasted on Candid Phone.”

Dees himself says they were
real as well. “The key for me with Candid Phone is (and was) to use real
people,” he told me.

I should also point out
that the laws on recording and airing such bits became stricter sometime in the
early 2000s, so Dees Candid Phones probably were indeed both legal and
real.